I'm always amazed that such blunders make it through the production process with no-one catching them along the way - especially in marketing, where they're supposed to be highly attuned to 'messaging'. That said, my own take is that this is an instance of a somewhat blurry concept that's open to looking worse than it is, rather than the galling message it has been widely interpreted as - and the still the blogger shared doesn't help with that. In the full gif, the Black girl removes a t-shirt matching her skin tone; then she becomes a White girl, who also removes a skin-coloured t-shirt; then that girl becomes an Indian girl, who similarly removes her own skin-toned top.

I think the concept is supposed to be that each girl removes her outer layer or 'second skin' (represented by the shirt, not the previous model) and becomes a 'cleansed', version of herself returned to her 'natural' state. And there's a secondary message that this is for women of all skin tones. They've muddled things up by mixing the two messages, though, such that it appears that the White girl is the 'cleansed' version of the Black girl - though, by extension, that reading would imply that the Indian girl is a cleansed version of the White girl, making it an Indian supremacist ad.

It would've made more sense if the girls had all been side by side, or if there had been a clear break between each one, but they've gone for a quirky visual concept that makes absolutely no sense (some people said it was referencing MJ's Black or White video, but I'm not convinced), and had a total tin ear to the way it can first appear, which has unpleasant echoes of those old colonial-era soap ads. I think the "from normal to dark skin" and "visibly more beautiful skin" Dove ads also doing the rounds since the controversy are actually more objectionable.

[Edited 10/9/17 3:42am]

"Not everything that is faced can be changed; but nothing can be changed until it is faced." - James Baldwin

I'm always amazed that such blunders make it through the production process with no-one catching them along the way - especially in marketing, where they're supposed to be highly attuned to 'messaging'. That said, my own take is that this is an instance of a somewhat blurry concept that's open to looking worse than it is, rather than the galling message it has been widely interpreted as - and the still the blogger shared doesn't help with that. In the full gif, the Black girl removes a t-shirt matching her skin tone; then she becomes a White girl, who also removes a skin-coloured t-shirt; then that girl becomes an Indian girl, who similarly removes her own skin-toned top.

I think the concept is supposed to be that each girl removes her outer layer or 'second skin' (represented by the shirt, not the previous model) and becomes a 'cleansed', version of herself returned to her 'natural' state. And there's a secondary message that this is for women of all skin tones. They've muddled things up by mixing the two messages, though, such that it appears that the White girl is the 'cleansed' version of the Black girl - though, by extension, that reading would imply that the Indian girl is a cleansed version of the White girl, making it an Indian supremacist ad.

It would've made more sense if the girls had all been side by side, or if there had been a clear break between each one, but they've gone for a quirky visual concept that makes absolutely no sense (some people said it was referencing MJ's Black or White video, but I'm not convinced), and had a total tin ear to the way it can first appear, which has unpleasant echoes of those old colonial-era soap ads. I think the "from normal to dark skin" and "visibly more beautiful skin" Dove ads also doing the rounds since the controversy are actually more objectionable.

[Edited 10/9/17 3:42am]

nice work as always:

I can not believe that most if not all of the people that knew what the final product way did not know what would happen...what makes it racist is they let it run anyway.

As to ad. I like the effect...it was like a budget version of the black or white video effect. The idea that the SHIRT and not the woman's skin is what is being removed and that the shirt represents dry or dirty skin is again an interesting concept...but you can not have a black woman in a soap ad remove her SKIN to become white.

"I was raped by the Arkansas AG who then becomes Governor & President..." Juanita Broaddrick

it was just showing happy women of different 'races' as the result of DOVE

.

This probably would not have been an issue if it was a 'white' woman followed by a 'black' woman.

.

This isn't anything like that Asian detergent commercial where the Asian woman put her 'Black' boyfriend in the laundry and he comes out Asian.

I do not agree.... many actors gladly acting in roles that (at least by today's standard) were racist stereotypes. The fact that there is a third woman doesn't excuse that they transformed a black woman...white in a soap ad.

as to the ad from China. I have no idea what their social norms are or how they view black people... so I can not judge that ad as if it was presented in the US. And just because racist ads have existed for many years doesn't excuse Dove either.

basically, any suggesting that a white person is better or cleaner than a black person is not acceptable and I do not see how it was (intent aside) as racist.

"I was raped by the Arkansas AG who then becomes Governor & President..." Juanita Broaddrick

Ogunyemi explained that the screenshots of the longer, 30-second TV ad confused the context and made the ad seem like something it wasn’t. The pictures posted to social media show Ogunyemi lifting her shirt and transforming into a white model. Since Dove is advertising soap, the public interpreted the ad as indicating a black person would turn clean and white after using the soap, the New York Post reported.

Ogunyemi claims that was not the intention at all and she is proud of the work she is doing as part of the ad campaign and as part of her larger work with Dove.

“Having the opportunity to represent my dark-skinned sisters in a global beauty brand felt like the perfect way for me to remind the world that we are here, we are beautiful, and more importantly, we are valued,” Ogunyemi wrote for an op-ed published in The Guardian.